<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>No One Is As Deaf As The Man Who Will Not Listen by orphan_account</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24434020">No One Is As Deaf As The Man Who Will Not Listen</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>James Bond (Craig movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ableism, Accurate Depictions of Ableism, Deaf Character, Deaf!James Bond, Disabilities, Happy Ending, Hard of Hearing, Hearing aids, HoH James Bond, M/M, Sort Of</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 07:22:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,163</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24434020</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James Bond/Q</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Banned Banned Together Bingo 2020, Banned Together Bingo 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>No One Is As Deaf As The Man Who Will Not Listen</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>                    Q looked positively indignant as he stared at James, his hands on his hips and that image alone made him want to roll his eyes, he was always so dramatic. James truly wanted to be anywhere else in the world, instead of being scolded in his Quartermaster's office. This entire situation was ridiculous anyway and he really didn't want to discuss it, but it seemed to be inevitable at this point. The dark haired man's eyebrows were furrowed tightly as he glared at him, clearly impatient as he waited for an answer that he wasn't sure he could really give him. With a deep breath, the agent shook his head and looked back up at the man, finally having composed his thoughts enough to respond. </p><p>                    "I wasn't ignoring you, Q. Good God. I can't hear." James told him, deciding to just be honest about what had happened. Normally, he would have been fine and everything would have gone as planned, he was fine on every other mission they sent him on. He had hearing aids made by someone separated from Q-Branch and nobody knew, and things were perfect for him. They helped him enough that his hearing wasn't an issue and nobody ever found out what was wrong with him, it killed two birds with one stone. Yet, there had been a loud popping noise from inside his aids and then there was nothing but vaguely fuzzy sounds, he hadn't heard any of Q's instructions beyond that point. </p><p>                   "What do you mean you couldn't hear me? Honestly, that is the stupidest excuse you have ever given me." Q huffed out at him and James knew that wasn't going to be enough of an answer. For a genius, Q could certainly be stupid sometimes, not able to piece two and two together. It was fair enough for him to be upset over this, though, James had gotten hurt on the mission because of not being able to hear. That wasn't because he was simply ignoring him like he had been accused of when he had returned to the building, yelling hadn't been helping him feel better right after he had been shot, but he knew telling him that wouldn't go over too well with an already riled up Quartermaster. </p><p>                    "Just stop for a minute, Q! I mean, I can't hear, literally. I'm deaf, I can't hear." James finished explaining, it was easier than he thought to get those words out, even though it was the first time he had told anyone he knew about that fact. The expressions on Q's face changed time and time again after he heard that, confusion then disbelief, finally settling on a guilty look that made James feel even worse about all of this mess. "I have been for years now, long before you started working as my Quartermaster." He continued to tell him and he had been, he had been deaf ever since he was twenty-four years old when he had been ill-equipped during a mission and his hearing was injured. </p><p>                    "And you didn't think to tell anyone? It's not in any of your medical files, why the hell doesn't anyone know? We could have made sure this didn't happen? You never once considered this was something important to let us know about?" James knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help the smile that came to his face as Q began berating him again. It made him feel better knowing that Q wasn't going to go easy on him or baby him now that he knew he couldn't hear. Plenty of times, a woman had realized he was hard of hearing and started treating him differently because of that fact, he couldn't think of a single thing he hated more than that. "I'm sorry, is this a funny situation to you, 007?"</p><p>                    "No, of course not, Quartermaster. I'm not laughing at the situation, but come on. You can't just speak up about having a disability around here, I valued my job too much for that." James sighed out, he had been young and new in his career. He had trained and fought his way into his position for years, he was twenty-four and facing the risk of losing all that. Nobody had any use for an agent who couldn't hear, they didn't have to make accommodations for someone who they viewed as less capable of doing their jobs, he couldn't be blamed for not speaking up about it. "I mean, do you see anyone else around here who has a disability? Do you think that's just a funny coincidence?" </p><p>                    "Well...No, I suppose not. But surely times are changing, yes? They know how well you work now, they'll be able to see that you can do this job just as well as anyone else can." Q tried to reason with him and James gave a small smile at his hopeful naivety. The reasoning behind his views was sound and in an ideal world, that is truly how it would be, but the world wasn't ideal and James knew far better than to try to believe that it was. That hopeful look disappeared off of Q's face when he gave a small shake of his head and was replaced by a certain sadness he had never seen on his face before, and he sincerely hoped he would never have to see him looking so upset ever again. </p><p>                    "What will happen is they'll completely forget every mission I have ever been on before this and only use this mission, one out of a million where things didn't go well and they'll tell me they can't have me on anymore. That I'm a liability and jeopardizing everything around here because I can't hear, they'll bring up every small hitch in missions as even more evidence that I can't do my job." Briefly after getting hurt on this mission, James had begun to question whether he could or not, but tried to remind himself that he was a good agent. No agent was good enough to make people listen when it came to disabilities, though, the rules in place didn't allow for any exceptions to it. </p><p>                    "I'll make you some new aids, ones that won't mess up and we'll keep this between the two of us." Q conceded in a quiet tone and James was honestly surprised, he knew how much the younger man hated hiding things and hated breaking the rules. He really hadn't expected him to do something like this, yet it made since for how he was. Slowly rising up to his feet, James pulled the younger man into his chest and sighed when he felt how he instantly clung onto him. A hand rested on the small of Q's back as he held onto him as well, letting the man bury his face into his neck. No, it wasn't a fair situation to people with disabilities, but it was people like him who made it a bit easier. </p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>